Van Gisbergen managed to peg back two of those spots before the second round of stops began, neither Coulthard nor Mostert putting up a fight.

By the time McLaughlin made his second stop, his margin over van Gisbergen was just three seconds - and the Red Bull Holden needed to take on five seconds less fuel at its stop.

The No.97 made its final stop earlier than planned - just two laps after McLaughlin, rather than the seven or eight planned - but the result was as expected: SVG emerged in the lead, 1.5s ahead of his title rival.

The leaders managed their tyres across the final stint, van Gisbergen letting the two Fords close right in as he saved his rubber for the final 10-lap sprint to the flag.

Mostert couldn't stick with the two Kiwis when they put the hammer down, setting up a head-to-head battle between the two front row men.

Steadily, the daylight between the leading Holden and Ford increased until suddenly McLaughlin was over two seconds adrift. Game over, but not the end of the world. Instead of gaining or losing, the points gap between them would end the weekend the same as it started.

As the chequered flag waved, van Gisbergen held a 2.3s margin over McLaughlin.

Burnout spec: van Gisbergen.

The battle for third went down to the wire, Mostert only barely denying Whincup and his fresher rubber a podium for the second day in a row, with Coulthard rounding out the top five.

Next were Tim Slade and David Reynolds, who were both on the charge in Race 20. The former gained 13 spots from his grid position to be sixth and closing on Coulthard in the waning laps, with the Erebus car, last of all to pit with 20 laps to go, right on his tail.

Craig Lowndes' final Supercars race at at Queensland Raceway ended in eighth place, with Rick Kelly and Jack Le Brocq rounding out the top 10.

Garth Tander finished where he started in 11th ahead of Will Davison, with Michael Caruso, Andre Heimgartner, Cam Waters, James Golding, De Pasquale, Stanaway, Pye and Lee Holdsworth making up the top 20.

Simona De Silvestro, Tim Blanchard and Kurt Kostecki were the last cars on the lead lap, the latter tangling mid-race in an incident that earnt the wildcard racer a 15-second time penalty.

The delayed Percat and Winterbottom were next, one and four laps down respectively, while Courtney briefly returned to the track before retiring for good at mid-distance.